


"O, beware, my lord, of jealousy!"

by AuthorInDistress



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Could be seen as domestic abuse I suppose, Jealousy, Loki needs to learn to listen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-20
Updated: 2013-05-20
Packaged: 2017-12-12 10:13:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/810407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuthorInDistress/pseuds/AuthorInDistress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>  <i> "O, beware, my lord, of jealousy! It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock The meat it feeds on. That cuckold lives in bliss Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger; But O, what damned minutes tells he o'er Who dotes, yet doubts--suspects, yet strongly loves! "</i></p><p> </p><p>
  <i>
    <b>--Iago. Act 3, scene iii. </b>
  </i>
</p><p> </p><p>----</p><p>Loki has enough evidence to prove Tony's betrayal to him. Enough to be <i>sure</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	"O, beware, my lord, of jealousy!"

**Author's Note:**

> A request given from saiya-tina on Tumblr. 
> 
> It made me sad.

.

Tony stirred on the bed when it dipped just on his left and he rolled his head to one side, sighing softly in his sleepiness. 

Loki sat by his side, staring down at him with his hands clasped in his lap; his eyes dark in the dim light of the room.

Tony sighed again, opening his eyes slowly and running a hand through his hair, smiling up at him when he saw his sitting there, “Hey,” He whispered, his voice rough from his sleep.

Loki didn’t answer.

“What’s wrong?” Tony slid his hands down to his sides and pushed himself up into a sitting position, frowning at Loki when he still said nothing in reply, “Loki?”

“Where were you yesterday.”

The question threw Tony slightly, and he blinked, titling his head to one side to give Loki a look, “Uh, I don’t know. Depends on the time. Why?”

“Did you stay long?” Loki said, ignoring Tony’s lack of adequate response, and he tightened his jaw at the confusion that bloomed over that face, “Was he _satisfactory_ enough, for you.”

Tony straightened, “Excuse me.”

Loki shifted, leaning closer. His eyes were narrowed, burning with anger as Tony stared into them, and he unconsciously moved backward himself and away from Loki. Just in case, “You returned home with a different set of clothes.”

Tony’s confusion melded into annoyance, “Doesn’t mean anything happened. I was at a meeting, there was a problem with the sprinklers and I got _wet_. The client was kind enough to - “

“Your hair was not ‘wet’ when you came here.”

Tony made a face, “Ever hear of a hairdryer.”

Loki looked at him. Just looked. 

“Loki - “

And then, suddenly, he grabbed Tony’s wrist, pulling him forward; practically into his lap, “You are _lying_ to me.” He snarled.

Tony pushed at his chest, “Then shouldn’t you be able to _tell_.” He spat, glaring at Loki now, but despite himself a tendril of fear ran down him, “That’s your nickname isn’t it, Liesmith.”

“I would rather you tell me.” Loki growled, pulling him closer and barely wincing at Tony’s blows, “I would rather you be _honest_ with me.”

Tony stopped his pushing and sighed, letting his forehead hit Loki’s chest, “Okay, listen, you’re being paranoid alright. Like, _really_ paranoid.” Loki’s glare darkened, “Look, I’ll be honest, just like I have been anyway, and say that _nothing happened_ yesterday. There was just a problem with the sprinklers, I changed my clothes, and I dried myself before leaving and coming back here. That. Is. All.”

Loki’s expression didn’t change.

“So let me go now, and let’s just sleep. And maybe, talk in the morning about all this, because - “

Loki’s other hand found one of his ankles and he pulled him down until he was on his back again. Tony gasped when he almost bit his tongue at the sudden tug, but Loki let go of him and he relaxed anyway, rolling his eyes at Loki’s abrupt mood changes. That is, until a Stark-phone dropped onto his stomach from Loki’s hand. 

He looked down at it, trying to sit up to look but a hand on his shoulder kept him down and he gave Loki a look of irritation before picking the phone up and turning it on. The first thing it showed him was a series of text messages, dated the 21st at around 7:01pm and onwards. Yesterday afternoon. Just before his meeting.

He scrolled down the messages, his brow tightened more and more as he continued to read them before finally shutting it at a completely obscene message. He tossed the phone to one side and let it bounce on the mattress.

“That’s not mine.” He stated, folding his arms across his chests and giving Loki a dark glare. The phone looked like his, maybe was his, but he never sent those texts and he hadn’t even been drunk so - so something was up and he needed Loki to - “And it says a lot that you even think it’s min -“

“Stop lying.” Loki said, sounding a little weary now, “Please stop lying to me.” 

At the word ‘please’, Tony’s scowl melted away and he sat up again, gratified that Loki didn’t stop him. He placed a hand on Loki’s cheek, trying to make him look into his eyes, “Loki. I don’t know what you’re thinking right now or what else you’ve supposedly found but this is a mistake. I never sent those texts and I never - “

Loki’s fingers took a hold over the ones on his face and he squeezed them. Hard.

“Ah - Loki, stop it and listen for a second okay, I -” Loki loosened his hold when Tony’s eyes widened at it, “Look, I get that you might be mad, and I get that this looks bad but right now we won’t get anything done and - “

“No.” Loki said, a single, low word.

Tony paused, “Okay. Yes, no. No, we won’t be able to talk about this now, so let’s sleep okay. And we’ll discuss it in the morning, when you’ve calmed the fuck down.”

“No.” Loki said again, but he spoke over Tony’s next words, “You will not be here in the morning. You will not have another morning.”

Tony frowned at him, “What are you - “

Loki pried his hand off of his face, turning it until the wrist was facing them, and he glared into Tony’s eyes then, “When your life leaves you, my mark will show on your hand. It will show that another has touched you, that you have betrayed me -“

“Loki -“

“And I will be rid of my only weakness.”

“Your-“

“I should have done this before.” Loki continued, sounding regretful, “Before you could have ever done this to me.”

Tony gaped at him, running those words through his head until he could understand the complete implication of them, and when he saw the glint of one of Loki’s tiny little knives, he struggled against the grip on his arm.

“Loki, what the _hell_ are - “

Loki pushed him down, holding him on the bed with both his weight and his strength, but Tony covered his face with his arms, blocking the dagger as best he could until he actually got a grip on it and threw it away. The fact that he even could get it away from Loki, said a lot about his genuine conviction to do this.

“What is wrong with you?!” Tony shouted at him, still pinned down on the bed but with the knife on the floor now, he could breathe a little easier, “Have you gone fucking _insane_?!”

Loki was breathing heavily, his eyes alight and glazed, “You betrayed me.” He said. As though it was a fact.

“ _No_ ,” Tony said, adamant and angry, “I _didn’t_.”

Loki lowered his head, looking Tony in the eyes before his face crumpled. He turned his face to press it into Tony’s neck, while Tony himself stared wide-eyed up at the cieling, “I stole for you.” He murmured softly, his voice breaking, “I gave _everything_ , I let myself be tortured for you.”

Tony tried to hold him, tried to free his arms, “Loki, I - “

“How could you.”

“I didn’t _do_ any - “

Loki pulled back now, his eyes lidded and though his face was blank, his eyes were as solemn as Tony had ever seen them.

And then Tony couldn’t see him at all.

He choked on his breath when a pillow was pulled forward and shoved onto him.

It was pressed further down on his face when he didn’t first react and when he couldn’t get another breath in, he thrashed under it. He screamed into the cotton, his hands now free to fight back but he couldn’t see and he couldn’t breathe.

He found Loki’s face, his fingers digging in and clawing at the skin there, but nothing seemed to help.

Loki’s face was set, his teeth clenched together, and he refused to let up, refused to move his hands. 

Tony’s struggling became more desperate, more panic, and there was sobbing mixed in with the screaming now; muffled and terrified.

Loki held him down, kept him pinned with his thighs, and he leant over the pillow until Tony’s movements began to slow.

 _Forgive me_.

What seemed like an age afterward, Tony finally stopped moving at all and when Loki glanced down, his chest was no longer rising; his arc reactor no longer glowing. 

Moving the pillow seemed more difficult than holding it down had been, and Loki’s arms were stiff from it, aching from keeping them bent for so long. 

He threw the pillow to one side when it was out the way, and stared down at Tony.

His eyes were half open, his mouth shut, and there was the start of tears dried over his face. 

Loki swallowed, his throat tight and constricted, and his breathing was still so heavy. 

Tony didn’t move still, didn’t breathe. 

The look of betrayal on his face was so clear to see that Loki turned away from it. Turned to lift his wrist, to turn it to see what he knew would be there.

He thumbed the skin when it continued to be bare, and he waited.

And waited.

The skin continued to remain bare; void of any symbols, void of any marks.

 _No_. 

Loki closed his eyes, redoing the spell in his mind, viciously repeating the words and then staring down at the wrist. 

There was still nothing there.

“No,” He breathed, turning his gaze toward both the phone and the knife, “No, I cannot be wrong in this, I - "

Tony was still so still.

There was not a breath in him now.

And the last breath, the last he had been given. The last had been honest.

So completely honest with him.

_Let’s just talk about it in the morning._

“No.” Loki was shaking now, dropping the wrist to lift Tony’s head, to stare at it in both shock and grief and -

And guilt.

“No, I was - "

Tony’s head lolled to one side, the eyes sliding shut completely, and Loki pulled him closer; wrapping his arms around the limp body, holding him against his chest.

His anger from before ebbed away. Everything ebbed away, everything he had felt, and all he could feel now was emptiness. Just emptiness.

Hollow.

“What have I done.” 

He had been so sure, he had been so _angry_. He'd - 

He had _killed_.

“What have I done.”

Tony didn’t answer. Tony said nothing at all.

Tony didn’t move, didn’t struggle, didn’t scream.

Tony couldn't love him.

Loki buried his face in Tony’s neck, clutching onto that back and feeling his guilt flow through him. Swallowing him whole.

He sobbed, hearing it echo in the dark, and Tony’s body moved with him.

“What have I _done_.”

.

**Author's Note:**

> So when Loki calms down, he'll realize that he was set up. And then it's revenge time. This will only be one part on it's own though, so I'll leave that to imagination.


End file.
